Air Force Vision and Efforts to Reduce Corrosion in Aerospace Applications

The Air Force Corrosion Prevention and Control Office (AFCPCO) has managed the Air Force's corrosion program for almost a half century and is the Air Force's single focal point for all corrosion guidance and policy.

This presentation will describe recent Air Force corrosion issues, the actions AFCPCO is taking to address them, and new technologies to improve the Air Force corrosion program. This need is imperative: the cost of corrosion for 2009 was $5.4 billion, nearly 13% of the Air Force’s entire operations and maintenance budget and over 32% of depot costs.  Airframe age has birthed the long-promised “modernization death spiral.” We are now migrating critical procurement dollars to operations and maintenance to sustain our aging fleets.

We need to focus on our programs to predict, detect, and manage corrosion through the development of non-chromium corrosion-inhibiting coatings; borescope technology; support equipment and vehicles; development and implementation of corrosion sensor fleet test and management program; dehumidification (DH) technology for the F-22 to prove benefits of DH as it relates to increases in reliability, corrosion prevention and to determine the actual ROI of DH; and assist the Basic Expeditionary Airfield Resource (BEAR) SPO to assess and improve the corrosion policies, materials and processes used to prepare BEAR equipment for deployment and  reconstitution following deployments.

In closing, we provide formal technical guidance and on-call problem solving for MAJCOMs, depots, system managers, and field units. We address cross-cutting corrosion problems, providing continuity throughout the Air Force corrosion community. We serve as a bridge between developers and users, helping transition technologies into operational use.